Has anyone seen the ridiculous suggestion by Guy Forget on Europsort? He suggests that the rankings are waived for the seedings at RG and that Nadal is seeded so that he does not meet Nole until the final. This would probably mean that Ferrer, who has worked so hard for his ranking would be relegated to 5. Andy could also be demoted just to help Nadal. I just wonder what your thinking is on this suggestion?

I don't agree with any tournament deviating from the world rankings. To a certain extent I can understand why Wimbledon do it - the grass season being so short.

The player to avoid at RG is still Nadal. The top 3 will not want to play him in the quarters. I would imagine that Andy will be back to no.2 when the RG draw is done. That would mean he could get a draw of Rafa in the quarters, Federer in the semis and Djokovic in the final. That would obviously be the nightmare scenario. Another draw could have him avoiding Rafa in the quarters, getting Ferrer in the semis and Djokovic in the final.

If anything, Rafa being moved to no.4 could benefit the top 3 players. I do think it would be wrong for RG to alter the seedings.

There's probably ways that the top three could benefit from Nadal being upgraded as it were. I just think that favouring one player like this would be unfair, and I'd say the same no matter who it was. You can't just shift the goalposts like this, otherwise what's the point of rankings, seedings or any of it. This definitely wasn't one of Forget's better ideas, but hopefully it will stay as just an idea.

From reading blogs and tennis forums it seems the focus has shifted from Novak vs Andy to Rafa vs Novak as the match up people are thinking will be the new main rivalry. In one respect it's good as Andy can fly under the radar but I really hope it turns back to Novak vs Andy, or back to a triumverate of all three, i find Rafa vs Novak matches boring.

From reading blogs and tennis forums it seems the focus has shifted from Novak vs Andy to Rafa vs Novak as the match up people are thinking will be the new main rivalry. In one respect it's good as Andy can fly under the radar but I really hope it turns back to Novak vs Andy, or back to a triumverate of all three, i find Rafa vs Novak matches boring.

Actually when it comes to clay, I don't see why it shouldn't be about Nadal and Nole. They are the main contenders after all. Once Wimbledon is here, they will switch to Andy and Nadal/Nole (Federer to a slight lesser extent). When it comes to USO, both Andy and Nole will be the major factors.

I don't agree with any tournament deviating from the world rankings. To a certain extent I can understand why Wimbledon do it - the grass season being so short.

The player to avoid at RG is still Nadal. The top 3 will not want to play him in the quarters. I would imagine that Andy will be back to no.2 when the RG draw is done. That would mean he could get a draw of Rafa in the quarters, Federer in the semis and Djokovic in the final. That would obviously be the nightmare scenario. Another draw could have him avoiding Rafa in the quarters, getting Ferrer in the semis and Djokovic in the final.

If anything, Rafa being moved to no.4 could benefit the top 3 players. I do think it would be wrong for RG to alter the seedings.

I agree with this. The ranking may just go against Andy come RG so best to avoid a tougher draw than to be seeded two. I'll take it.

From reading blogs and tennis forums it seems the focus has shifted from Novak vs Andy to Rafa vs Novak as the match up people are thinking will be the new main rivalry. In one respect it's good as Andy can fly under the radar but I really hope it turns back to Novak vs Andy, or back to a triumverate of all three, i find Rafa vs Novak matches boring.

I'd noticed that too. Strange - after the USO a Novak/Andy rivalry was being widely predicted and that persisted after the AO. Then Novak and Rafa meet in one final and suddenly it's all change. The so-called pundits are a pretty fickle lot, and I'm fed up anyway with all the Rafa glorification we've been subjected to ever since he started his comeback from injury. I don't like it anyway when two players constantly dominate - we had more than enough of that with Roger and Rafa.

Just how well Roger will perform for the rest of this year remains to be seen, and Rafa still has to overtake Ferrer who is currently 1,285 points ahead of him (although his present form is in doubt), so for the foreseeable future I can see a mix of players in the top five - which doesn't mean that I think anybody is going to overtake Novak as #1 anytime soon, if at all this year, despite Roger's avowed intention to get his #1 ranking back.